Color Matters: Why Green and Red is not a Perfect Combination

The other day I was browsing the web when I came across an ad for a financial services company I had worked for a long time ago. What struck me as odd was the color or shall I say color combinations. You see the colors of the ad were green and red.

Normally, green and red are fine colors but when you put them on top of each other that’s a different story. First and foremost, people who have red/green color blindness cannot see red text on a green background or vice versa. Therefore by doing this, you have basically made your design useless for a certain segment of the population.

The second issue is the psychology or meaning of the colors. For a financial services company, green is a perfect color for western cultures. Green means prosperity and trust. Trust is something you want to convey for finances. However, if this brand was used in an Asian country it would need to be changed because green implies infidelity.

Red is not something you would typically use for finance in western cultures because it implies your finances are in the negative. While in some instances red is a perfect color for branding this isn’t really a good branding choice when you’re dealing with money. The one exception would be in East Asian Stock Market where the color red means the stocks are on the rise.

As I said before in my various blog posts and workshops color matters. If your designer isn’t aware of color psychology or usability then it might be time to consider moving on. The web is full of websites and tools to ensure your users are getting the best experience. You just have to Google color psychology or website usability tests. You can also talk to an experienced designer who has studied both of these areas extensively as part of a Masters Program in Information Technology and Web Design.

If you would like to discuss your website’s usability or your brand, give me a call at 425-243-4176 today.